Breaking out

Debut authors know what it takes to write a book, but then what, asks ANN Y.K. CHOI

PERSONAL ESSAY

In the beginning, it was quiet.

I used to write once my daughter, Claire, then seven years old, went to bed. The entire first draft of Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety, my debut novel, was written in semi-darkness. Somehow it felt safer to delve into the psyche of an immigrant Korean family that way. The five years that it took to complete a rough first draft passed in relative peace.